Hulwar

Overview

Hulwar is a human nation, born from the ruins of the Dragon Sun Empire. The returning people called it "Hulwar". The name derived from originally two words: hulthern and colemwar.
Hulthern is a term for sleeping, dozing, napping. The word Colemwar is the term for (mostly) an old man who still has a lot of strength in him, maybe an old warrior. So the citizens of the newly formed nation called it Hulwar, the strong sleeping man.

Its borders where the same as the borders of the Dragon Sun Empire including the old fortresses, mines, quarries and defensive positions and weapons.

The nation of Hulwar was formed not even half a year after the Golden Sun Bloodline vanished. People were curious because of the sudden silence and found the whole capital dead. They started a new nation a few weeks later.

Resources

Hulwar has a huge variation of resources. It has a lot of grains, clay and underground resources like gold and silver, but also other precious metals. Their biggest export material is linen and oil which they trade with the dwarves for stone and tools. Besides linen they have a lot of clay in the southern region of Hulwar and the pottery is sought after.

Government

The ancestors of Hulwar were the dragon worshippers of the Dragon Sun Empire. They tried to learn from its failures and from its success, so there are no clans anymore. At some point they appointed two big families to be the royal couple and so they had a queen and a king again which shared the power more or less equally. But instead of nobels who came into the council they established a voting system with clay shards, where they had written every possible candidat on it. The royal couple will draw seven tiles from those names and the picked person has to attend the election ceremony where the person can decline or accept the offer.

If they accept the offer, they now have a week to prepare themselves with everything they want and have. The actual council member will do the same which is - on the first look - pretty unfair, but it comes from a very humble idea: you came from the bottom of society and now it is your chance to have a better place in it. Beating the odds with your own resources is a huge win for you and for society.

So the structure of the government is as followed:

• King & Queen
• Counselor of Arms
• Counselor of Science
• Counselor of Magic & Knowledge
• Counselor of the Coin
• Counselor of the Soil
• Counselor of the City
• Counselor of the Quill

Every Counselor has its own department and his own chambers. The title of a Counselor is gender-neutral, so not only humans can attend to become a Counselor, but every species and every gender. Or all genders.

A Counselor has the right to do what is best for the city or the country and has two budgets: a personal budget and an official budget where the Counselor has access to it and can pour resources - be it gold or labours - into various projects, be it a new form of military warfare, a new carriage for diplomatic missions, the restauration of the council chamber (which falls under the jurisdiction of the Counselor of the Quill actually) or to assign new farming ground to the working people of Hulwar. The Counselor of the Coin for example is also the Counselor which can lend money to new starters if they are in need of a starting budget.

Religion

The religion of the human nation of Hulwar is based around a phanteon of ten gods. All ten of them appear wise and helpful, even the god of death Quelgar, but all of them are on the dark side of the spectrum. Idur for example is very helpful in cleaning your blood of diseases (not to the liking of Zumyar), but he also can give you the power of dark magic when you sacrifice a certain amount of blood to him.

It is not a coincidence that the followers of the gods are intrigant by nature, the gods are it themselves as well. So it isn't a surprise that - in opposite to both of the Eternals - Thyemis and Quelgar are rivals and try to outsmart the other one, even with their priests.

Male Gods:

• Idur, God of Blood
• Quelgar, God of Death
• Thyemis, God of Life
• Zumyar, God of War & Disease
• Luseus, God of Restoration
• Sharhardrar, God of Science

Female Gods:

• Orphelia, Goddess of Knowledge
• Alicia, Goddess of Sleep
• Tsellara, Goddess of Change
• Phiatris, Goddess of Darkness

The gods normally have a temple in the Holy District of Manvongr, the capital of Hulwar. In every smaller city and village one may find smaller temples or more private altars. For every god there is a high priest called bishop who is the highest order in terms of godly tasks and wisdom. The bishops report to the Counselor of the City and the Counselor to the royal couple.

Every god has its own temple which was built after their own instructions as they came to life hundreds of years ago. There could be altars, benches or pools of ritual sacrifices (Idur likes them a lot) or rooms for, perhaps painful, contemplation.

During the year there are ten holy days, starting with the first day of the year dedicated to Thyemis and ending with the last day of the year dedicated to Quelgar. Most of the human race are now using this calendar, which was formerly the old calendar of the Dragon Sun Empire. This calendar is used throughout the human race and most of Koria is using it by now out of convenience.

Arts & Crafts

The craftsmen and -women of Hulwar are known for their high quality cloth and pottery. Most of the pottery including vases, plates and mugs are even ordered from nobility and other kingdoms, sometimes even dwarfs.

Another part of the renowned craftsmanship is the craft of Forlorn. This craft is dedicated to life or death, blood and nature which means that the person is using his own blood, natural ingredients and a prayer to the god of life or the god of death. This can result in small figures with a certain aura to it or statues made out of bone.

The blacksmiths of Hulwar produces elegant and sturdy weapons and armor, most of them dedicated to their ancestors of the Dragon Sun Empire. You want a golden dragon head on top of your bronze-dragon-scale-armour? Sure. Oh, your sword should look like a biting serpent at the hilt? You got it.

Some of the more specialised blacksmiths are even contracted to smith weapons, armour and heavy weapons like ballistae or larger crossbows. There are also blacksmiths who are only contracted by the Holy Temples, nobility and or the palace.

Clothing

The citizens of Hulwar dress in linen and leather in more darker colours like brown, grey, dark blue, all kinds of red or even black. The men of Hulwar wear mostly shirts and trousers, but it is also common that they wear similar dresses as the women. The women wear a bit more colourful dresses (and trousers beneath them) for instance blood-red and white or blue and black; yes, that is depicted as more colourful.

Trading

Nearly every nation of Koria is trading with Hulwar for linen, linen oil, their knives, swords and armour, but mostly for they pottery and other crafts like the Forlorn.

But there is something beneath all of the trading: the trade for alchemy. Deep beneath the University of Hulwar are the Laboratories of Alchemy studies which produces a fair amount of alchemistic substances including the liquid which is used in the remaining iron pipes called the Dragonsbreath. Not that they would trade this liquid, but similar kinds of it, not so deadly.

Rites

There are two main rites in the nation of Hulwar and are also used outside its borders with variants in meaning and execution.

Binding Ritual

Circle of Life

The Binding Ritual is a sacrificing ritual for a god or goddess which is to be named during the execution. This is easier said than done. You are sacrificing a living human being. This sacrifice is under the influence of certain drugs so that is not to die before the end or lose consciousness.

The sacrificer has to do everything and has to start by skinning the sacrifice alive. Stripping down skin, meat, bones and in the end the very soul of the human being so the soul can be devoured by the god or goddess. This is one way to get the attention and maybe a favour from the dedicated god/goddess. Mostly the sacrificer wants to have power, the ability to perform magic or has a certain wish. It always comes with a price.

The ritual called the Circle of Life is a ritual which is only executed during the last and first day of the year. It normally starts around midday of the last day and ends around midday on the first day of the year.

The Circle of Life is executed in three parts:

• the ritual contemplation until a few minutes before midnight
• the animal sacrifice where the blood of the sacrifice has to fall on the youngest member of the family
• silent prayers or loud copulation

After the ritual you have a fruitful year (be it on your farm, in your workshop or you or your significant other are pregnant) and hopefully no god is pissed at you.

"You did what?!"
"Well... I have showed her my undying love."
"By giving her the heart of her beloved?"
"Yes."
"With the ritual of binding?"
"Yes."
"And did she say yes?"
"Well, she had no choice after that, right?"

— Two collegues after work in a tavern